NASA science

A commercial lander touches down on the Moon, discussing the science on the space station, and preparing for the next space station crew rotation mission … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

recruiting for next class of NASA astronauts. Selected candidates could fly on Artemis missions to the Moon and, eventually, Mars. Will you be one of them? Applications are open from March 5 through April 2, 2024. Read the requirements and start your application by visiting https://go.nasa.gov/astro2024. Don't think you have what it takes? There's no such thing as a typical astronaut. NASA are seeking out team players, passionate people, candidates who thrive under pressure and excel in what they do. The universe is calling. Explore with us.

NASA and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works recently unveiled the X-59 experimental aircraft, designed and built to reduce a loud sonic boom, associated with faster-than-sound flight, to a quiet sonic thump. The X-59 now moves closer to its first flight — - a step toward making commercial supersonic flight over land a reality for everyone. Researchers on NASA’s Quesst mission will work to understand people’s reactions to the X-59’s thump and give that data to regulators, who will then consider writing new sound-based rules to lift the ban on commercial supersonic flight over land.

We're saddened by the passing of Astronaut Richard Truly at the age of 86. In 1965, Truly became one of the first military astronauts selected to the Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory program and transferred to NASA as an astronaut in August 1969. He served as capsule communicator for all three Skylab missions in 1973 and the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975. He was pilot for one of the two-astronaut crews that flew the 747/Space Shuttle Enterprise approach and landing test flights during 1977. He then was backup pilot for STS-1, the first orbital test of the Shuttle. His first space flight was as pilot of Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-2), significant as the first piloted spacecraft to be reflown in space. His second flight (STS-8) was as commander of Space Shuttle Challenger, the first night launch and landing in the Shuttle program. The former Shuttle astronaut served as the first commander of the Naval Space Command in Dahlgren, Virginia, established Oct. 1, 1983. Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly returned to NASA to become NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Flight on February 20, 1986. In this position, he led the painstaking rebuilding of the Space Shuttle program. This was highlighted by NASA’s celebrated “return to flight” on September 29, 1988, when Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on the first Shuttle mission in almost 3 years.

An historic delivery to the Moon’s South Pole, a record-breaking scientific balloon flight, and an asteroid mission’s close pass of the Sun … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!